The Biophysical Relationship Return
by ynotlleb
Summary: The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Everything belongs to Chuck Lorre and friends.
1. November 2030

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 1, meetings, meetings and more meetings. **_

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Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper, head of the department of microbiology at Caltech, arrived at the office of Professor Tom Kariuki, Dean of Biological Sciences, for her 4th meeting of the day.

Kariuki: "Hello Bernadette, what brings you here?"

Bernadette: "Hello Tom, aren't we going to be discussing the new tenured Professors with Professor Thompson?"

Kariuki: "You didn't get the message, Sam Thompson isn't feeling well. He has gone home."

Bernadette: "Evidently I didn't, oh well I have half an hour to catch up with paperwork in my office before my next meeting."

Kariuki: "Sit down Bernadette, I have a free half an hour too, relax for a while, would you like some tea?"

Bernadette sat down and said "sure thing."

Kariuki turned on the intercom "Mrs Patel, could you bring in two cups of tea please."

Bernadette: "Thank you Tom."

Kariuki: "So, how is Sheldon?"

Bernadette: "He is still a scientist, he can do his theoretical physics all day without having to go to endless meetings. I don't know how they persuaded me to become head of department."

Kariuki: "You know how it works here in biological science, all Professors above a certain grade have to take it turns to be head of department for a year. You only have 5 more months to the end of March then someone else takes over."

Bernadette: "I know it has only been 7 months but it feels like 7 years, I don't know how you can keep doing a job like this year in year out."

Kariuki: "Well someone has to do it. Ah here is the tea, thank you Mrs Patel."

Bernadette: "It has been so long since I have been in the lab my lab coat is covered in cobwebs and dust. I keep it on the back of the door of my office to remind me that I was once a scientist and will return to the lab one day."

Kariuki: "How is your research group?"

Bernadette: "You mean how is Andrea's research group. I see the group once a week on Monday afternoons, the rest of the time Dr. Gonzalez runs the show."

Kariuki: "How is that young man from Cambridge doing?"

Bernadette: "James Roberts is doing fine, he is going back next month. Our new Cambridge student Sally Deng will be arriving in the New Year. Our annual exchange of Ph.D students with Cambridge ever since Sheldon and I went there 5 years ago has worked out really well. That was a wonderful 6 months we had in Cambridge, that was the last time I seriously got to do some proper science."

Kariuki: "Good old Cambridge."

Bernadette: "You said it Tom. Thanks for the tea but I have to go to my next meeting. To end the day I have the microbiology finance committee meeting, lucky me..."


	2. December 2030

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 2, Sheldon and Bernadette get some news.**_

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Monday at 3.00pm was the highlight of Bernadette's week, her weekly meeting with her research group. As she was having to be head of department then Dr. Andrea Gonzalez was the _de facto_ head of the group. However, Bernadette did her best to keep up with the group between her endless meetings.

Bernadette: "Hello everybody, how are things? I only have 45 minutes this week as I have meeting after this with Professor Kariuki. Nice to see James again, you will be off to good old Cambridge soon. What is the story on our Caltech-Cambridge student exchange?"

Andrea: "James is returning to Cambridge in 10 days time. Harry Robinson will be coming back to Caltech from Cambridge a couple of days later. Then in the New Year Sally Deng is coming from Cambridge and Kerstin is heading out to spend a year in Cambridge."

Bernadette: "Excellent, don't waste this opportunity Kerstin, both professionally and personally. Cambridge is a special place, I wish I could be going with you. Well done to Sunita on getting her paper published. Will we have any more papers published soon..."

40 minutes later

"Sorry it is so short this week, meetings never stop with my job. I look forward to seeing you next all week, I want to have a talk with James and Kerstin before they go off over the pond."

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Bernadette entered Professor Kariuki's outer office "Hello Mrs. Patel, shall I go straight through?"

Bernadette went into the inner office "Hello Tom, Sheldon why are you here?"

Kariuki: "Good afternoon Bernadette, sorry that I had to take you away from your research group meeting, please sit down with your husband. Good, how would you two like to go to Cambridge again next year?"

Bernadette: "Absolutely, can I go now? What about you Sheldon?"

Kariuki: "You have been working very hard this year as head of department. You stop being head at the end of March, Professor Thompson will then take over for the following year. So I have arranged a 6 month sabbatical for you in Cambridge from April to September next year, just like you did in 2025."

Sheldon: "The Physics collaboration we have with Cambridge is much less formal than the one that you have in microbiology. When you are theoretical physicists you can do most things online. We do have a postdoc who got her Ph.D from Cambridge a couple of years ago, my colleague Dr. Kripke spent a couple of months in Cambridge after he was over there for a conference last year. I will obviously need to confirm things with the Physics head of department but I think he would be glad to get rid of me for six months. If Cambridge can accommodate me as well as Bernadette then I can't wait."

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Things moved remarkably quickly after that. As Sheldon predicted the Physics head of department had no problem with Sheldon being away from Caltech for 6 months. Sheldon's friends in Cambridge said that they would be happy for him to come and visit whilst Bernadette was on sabbatical. By the end of the week everything was confirmed, Sheldon and Bernadette were off to Cambridge!

The social group took it turns to host the others for lunch every weekend. The next Saturday it was Sheldon and Bernadette's turn. First to arrive were Leonard and Penny with their daughter Marie. Then came Howard and Amy with their twin children Josh and Debbie. Finally Raj arrived with his new wife Samantha.

When everyone had arrived he made an announcement.

"Hello everyone, glad that you could make it. We have some news."

Then Bernadette said "Do you remember when we went to Cambridge for 6 months in April 2025? Well we are going back for another 6 months next April. What do you think of that?"

Marie Hofstadter then piped up "Do I get to look after Uncle Sheldon's Kitty Cats again?"


	3. March 2031

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 3, Sheldon and Bernadette prepare to leave for their sabbatical.**_

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Bernadette's term as head of department of microbiology ended on the last day of March. The main biology auditorium was full of all the microbiology staff and graduate students as she formally handed over to her successor. Bernadette gave a speech to start the proceedings.

"I came fo Caltech in 2015 on a 1 year maternity cover post. I am glad that Dr. Jane Parker is here today, if Jane hadn't given birth to her son I wouldn't be here. Then I have to thank Professor Tom Kariuki, our Dean of Biological Sciences, for arranging a new post for me here when he got promoted. I never dreamed that I would end up as head of department. Thank you to everyone who has put up with me for the last year."

Bernadette then put on her lab coat.

"This has been gathering dust and cobwebs for the last year with all my endless meetings, now I can become a scientist again. As you know I am off with my husband, Physics Professor Sheldon Cooper, to Cambridge in England for a 6 months sabbatical starting tomorrow. We are looking forward to the trip, we were there in 2025. However, we will miss all our friends and colleagues here at Caltech. Now can we all welcome the new head of department of microbiology, Professor Sam Thompson."

To a great round of applause Professor Thompson went up to the front of the auditorium, Bernadette gave him a hug and handed over the 'I'M IN CHARGE' sign, which had been on her desk for the last year, to her successor.

Professor Thompson then started to speak.

"Thanks to Bernadette for all her hard work over the last year, I hope you have a good time in Cambridge..."

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That evening the whole social group had a farewell party at Leonard and Penny's house. Marie was very happy to welcome Bernadette and Sheldon's cats Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein to the Hofstadter residence, just like in 2025 she was going to help look after her favourite animals, Kitty Cats! She spent most of the evening with Josh and Debbie playing with the cats, although Marie's own cat Kitty spent most of the evening hiding from the new cats. Josh and Debbie were very close as twins but they had a pseudo big brother/sister/cousin relationship with Marie.

Raj and Samantha were going to look after Sheldon and Bernadette's house in their absence. Raj's bachelor apartment was a bit small for a married couple, they were thinking of getting a house of their own. So Raj sublet his apartment for 6 months so they could practice living in a house together.

At the end of the evening Bernadette made a farewell speech.

"Thank you again our friends, just like in 2025 we are off over the pond to Cambridge. Many thanks to Marie for looking after our Kitty Cats and to Raj and Samantha for house sitting. We are going to miss you..."


	4. September 2031

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 4, Sheldon and Bernadette on sabbatical in Cambridge.**_

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Sheldon and Bernadette arrived in Cambridge on April 2nd 2031. Sheldon continued with his work as if he had never left Caltech, he had whiteboards in his office and their visiting scholars apartment. The only difference was instead of discussing his work with his Cambridge colleagues by email and Skype he could talk with them face to face.

However, things were very different for Bernadette. She wanted to get back to doing science. She had spent so little time in the lab in recent years so took (at her own insistence) the newcomers laboratory biological safety course. Her first two weeks in the lab were spent taking this course with 2 nervous young Ph.D students from India. She was also trained up in operation of the electron microscopes. Once she got herself fully trained up she just acted as a pair of helping hands in the lab to whoever needed help. She helped James (Caltech's Cambridge visitor of 2030) and Kerstin (Cambridge's Caltech visitor of 2031) in the lab. It was a pleasant surprise for both students that their former Professor, who they had mostly seen at weekly group meetings at Caltech, actually knew how to do science. Bernadette found herself running the electron microscope service for a couple of weeks when the experimental officer was on holiday. Bernadette was having a great time doing science and not being in meetings all day. She wore her lab coat every single working day!

Sheldon and Bernadette did some travelling during their time in Cambridge. Bernadette went to a 2 day microbiology meeting in Edinburgh, Sheldon then joined her at the end of the meeting and they had a weekend playing tourist in the Scottish capital. Sheldon went to CERN in Switzerland to give a lecture and Bernadette came along for the ride.

Once a week they would have a Skype chat with the social group back home in Pasadena to find out what was happening at home. Then one day in September...

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Sheldon was in his office working on his whiteboard when he was called for a meeting with the head of the Physics department, Professor Sally Jones.

Sally: "Ah, Professor Cooper, thank you for coming to join us. Do you remember Professor Malcolm Hutton."

Sheldon: "Good morning Professors, yes I do remember Professor Hutton."

Sally: "How are you enjoying Cambridge University."

Sheldon: "I am having a great time over here. Back home to California next month, I will be sad to leave."

Then Professor Hutton spoke: "How would you like to come back here permanently?"

Sheldon: "What do you mean Professor?"

Malcolm: "I am Lucasian Professor of Mathematics here at Cambridge. I believe you once knew one of my predecessors, Stephen Hawking."

Sheldon: "I did know Professor Hawking, a great man who I still miss today."

Malcolm: "I am 67 next April, the University has a rule that the Lucasian Professor must retire on their 67th birthday."

Sally: "So we will need a new Lucasian Professor next April, would you like the job Professor Cooper?"

Sheldon: "That is quite an offer, it would be an honour to follow in the footsteps of Professor Hawking and other Lucasian Professors like Paul Dirac and Isaac Newton! I need to discuss this with my wife."

Sally: "We are fully aware of your wife Bernadette, we have had a word with our colleagues in microbiology. If you were to take this job they said they would find a suitable job for her. We would want you to start next April so if you were to decide to take the job you can go back to California and sort things out with Caltech."

Sheldon took out his phone "Hello Bernadette, can we meet for lunch today, I have something important I need to discuss with you..."


	5. September 2031 again

**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 5, Cambridge pillow talk.**

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After Sheldon told Bernadette about his job offer at lunchtime neither of them went back to work after lunch. They were both conflicted about the potential change in their life. They spent the rest of the day discussing the pros and cons of a permanent relocation to Cambridge. Bernadette insisted that she wanted to see any job offers in writing before she would even consider it. They were still talking about when they went to bed. Late that night the pillow talking concluded.

Sheldon: "I think that we should sleep on this and see what we think in the morning."

Bernadette: "Do you really really really want this Sheldon?"

Sheldon: "To follow in the footsteps of Professor Hawking would be wonderful for my career. However, I will not do it without you."

Bernadette: "If I decide I want to do this I want to find out what Cambridge has got for me."

Sheldon: "Absolutely. If we are doing this we are going to have some serious discussions with this old University before we sign anything."

Bernadette: "OK, this has been quite day for us. Let us sleep on it. Good night Sheldon, I love you."

Sheldon: "I know."

Early next morning Bernadette woke her husband "OK, Sheldon, let's talk to Cambridge about coming back here permanently."

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By the end of the week Sheldon had signed a contract to be the new Lucasian Professor. Bernadette was offered a job as Chief Experimental Officer, which she was happy to accept. They provisionally reserved a rental house as a place to live after their relocation. They had just over a week to go before their return to California.

On Sunday night they had their regular Skype chat with their friends in California.

Bernadette started the conversation: "Hello everyone, we have some big news..."


	6. October 2031

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 6, Caltech Return.**_

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LAX international arrivals. Sheldon and Bernadette came through customs to be greeted by Leonard.

"Sheldon, Bernadette, over here."

Sheldon shook him by the hand and Bernadette gave him a hug.

"Welcome home you two. Are you really sure about this?"

"Yes Leonard, we are sure. I am going to be a Professor like Hawking."

"Do Caltech know yet."

Bernadette said "we will tell them when we go back in 2 days."

"I hope that you two know what you are doing."

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Two days later in the office of the head of department of Physics.

"Welcome back Professor Cooper, did you enjoy your time in Cambridge?"

"I enjoyed it so much Bernadette and I are going back permanently next April. You are talking to the next Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. Newton, Dirac, Hawking and now Cooper!"

"Oh really, come and say goodbye before you leave."

Meanwhile in the microbiology department.

"Hello Professor Thompson, how is life as head of department."

"Good to see you Bernadette, I have fifteen minutes before my next meeting, I would love to have a proper talk with you about your adventures in Cambridge."

"Cambridge is what I want to talk to you about. Sheldon has got a Professorship at Cambridge starting next April, I have got a job out there with him. We will be going back at the end of March."

"That is quite some news, are you sure about this?"

"It took us a while to decide on moving back, Sheldon wasn't going to take the job unless they found one for me."

"Have you told your research group yet?"

"No they are next, Sheldon is telling the Physicists the news around now. No doubt the news will be all round Caltech within the hour."

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Next day Bernadette and Dr. Gonzalez had a meeting with Professor Kariuki.

Kariuki: "Welcome back Bernadette and congratulations on your new job. We are going to miss you here at Caltech but I can't blame you for taking a job in Cambridge."

Bernadette: "Thank you Tom, I owe you a huge debt of thanks. I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have gone to Cambridge without you."

Kariuki: "Andrea, many thanks for all your hard work in looking after Professor Rostenkowski-Cooper's group in her absence. This was probably going to happen sooner or later but I have recommended that you should be promoted to Professor from next April. This needs to be rubber stamped by the appropriate committee but as I chair that committee you will be a Professor when you officially take over the research group. Congratulations Professor Andrea Gonzalez."

Andrea: "Well thanks to both of you, I have learned a lot from the two of you since I was your Ph.D student all those years ago."

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At the weekend the social group got together at the Rostenkowski-Cooper residence. Raj and Samantha were still living there, earlier in the summer the visiting scientists to whom they had sublet their apartment had asked if they could stay there until the end of October. Sheldon and Bernadette has no problem with having their friends as house guests for a month. The Hoftstadters were going to keep looking after Sheldon and Bernadette's cats, much to the delight of Marie, as taking 2 12 year old cats across the Atlantic could be dangerous for such old cats.

When the whole social group had been assembled Bernadette spoke first.

"Hello everybody, it is great to see the whole group back together again. Before you ask, yes we are definitely leaving for Cambridge next March and we do know what we are doing."

Sheldon then spoke "It was a tough decision and I wasn't going to do it without Bernadette but the offer to succeed Professor Hawking was too tempting to refuse."

Raj then spoke "We are all going to miss you but you don't need to tell me how special it is at Cambridge University."

Samantha then spoke "We do have one question for the two of you, can we buy your house?..."


	7. March 2032

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 7, California farewell.**_

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The last weekend of March 2032 Raj and Samantha hosted a farewell party for Sheldon and Bernadette. Raj and Samantha never returned to their apartment, they bought Sheldon and Bernadette's house. The Rostenkowski-Coopers gave them a good deal on the house provided they could stay at the house before they left for Cambridge. The day the house sale went through the two married couples swapped bedrooms. Raj and Samantha moved to the big bedroom and Sheldon and Bernadette moved to the guest room.

In the week before departure they had made their farewells to Caltech. Sheldon's last meeting with the head of Physics department lasted about 30 seconds. Bernadette's farewell to her research group lasted a lot longer, she said that she would help to look after the annual Caltech Ph.D student visitor to Cambridge and find a suitable Cambridge student to visit Caltech.

Only the social group and their children were at the farewell party. 12 year old Josh and Debbie and 11 year old Marie were approaching the age that they were becoming more interested in each other than their boring parents and Aunts and Uncles. However, they were sad to say goodbye to Uncle Sheldon and Aunt Bernadette but Marie was happy that she had inherited Uncle Sheldon's cats!

At the end of night farewell speeches were made

Samantha "Good luck to Sheldon and Bernadette with your new life in England. When Raj agreed to my proposal of marriage he did warn me that he came with a group of friends. Well I have been very happy to marry Raj and to gain such a wonderful group of friends, it will be sad to lose 2 of them."

Raj "Goodbye my friends, I will miss you as housemates and I am jealous that you are going to my _alma mater_, Cambridge is a special place, it totally looks like Hogwarts."

Amy "Howard and I went to Cambridge on our honeymoon, now you are going to live there. Sheldon and Bernadette were the first members of the group that Howard introduced me to, I am going to miss you both."

Howard "Once upon a time there were four nerdy male scientists, in due course they all got married to some wonderful ladies. Now one of the nerds and his wonderful wife are leaving. Good luck my friends."

Penny "A lot of things have happened since Bernadette and I worked at the Cheesecake Factory and I got to know a wonderful group of nerds who came to eat there. Good luck my old friends, I love you both. Oh and thanks for the cats."

Leonard "I still can't believe you are leaving, but you don't need to tell this Physicist how special you have to be to become Lucasian Professor. When you are at the University of Cambridge don't forget about us at little old Caltech."

Bernadette "Don't worry Leonard, we won't forget you and Caltech. Part of my duties for my new job is to organise the Cambridge end of the collaboration with Caltech. Thank you for such a wonderful send off, we love you all."

Finally Sheldon spoke "Next week I will become a successor of Professor Hawking, a far greater scientist than I could ever be. Don't worry my friends, you have not seen the last of us. Part of the house sale deal we made with Raj and Samantha was a guest room here when we visit California. We plan to come back for the Xmas holidays every year, do you know what the Cambridge winter weather is like! Thank you for everything and please come over the pond to visit us in Cambridge."


	8. November 2039

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 8, time passes.**_

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In April 2032 Sheldon officially became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, Sheldon put a big picture of Hawking on the wall of his office to honour his distinguished predecessor. Bernadette started her job as Chief Experimental Officer in the microbiology department. They were both soon hard at work, Bernadette wore a lab coat every day, she made it her business to know all the scientists working in the department. She kept in contact with Professor Gonzalez back at Caltech and kept the collaboration going. Sheldon found himself as part of a great web of theoretical physicists collaborating from all over the world. A giant hive mind of intellectual endeavour, Sheldon still did his bit to collaborate but found himself as more of a cheerleader encouraging younger physicists with their ideas.

For the first few years they kept in contact with their friends back home in Pasadena. They would escape the English winter by returning to California for the Xmas holidays. They hosted Raj and Samantha when Raj came back for a Cambridge Alumni reunion.

Then in 2036 Professor Kariuki retired from Caltech, Professor Gonzalez moved to Berkeley and took her research group with her. The Cambridge-Caltech microbiology collaboration soon withered away. Sheldon and Bernadette spent the northern winter of 2036-7 in Australia and didn't return to California that Xmas. After that the contact between Sheldon and Bernadette and their old friends was reduced to Xmas cards and the odd email.

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Then one day in November 2039, Professor Hofstadter was in his office at Caltech when his phone rang.

"A call for you Professor"

"Who is it Mrs Sharma?"

"It's a Professor Cooper, he is calling from Texas."

"Professor Cooper! Please put him through."

"Hello Leonard, this is Sheldon."

"Hello to you Sheldon, it has been a while."

"I am in Texas. Bernadette and I are here for my brother's funeral."

"Oh no, not good news."

"We will be here for a couple of days to do the family thing but we don't fly back to England until next week. Will you be around this weekend, we have rather neglected our old friends in Pasadena in recent years, it would be wonderful to see you all again."

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3 days later Sheldon and Bernadette returned to California for the first time in 4 years. Samantha and Raj picked them up from the airport, they insisted that the house sale deal was still valid. That evening there was the great reunion.

Bernadette "Hello my friends, hello. You haven't changed a bit. We have missed you all, when the Caltech-Cambridge collaboration ended other things kept getting in the way. It is wonderful to see you and this old house again. You two have done a good job with the house."

Samantha "Glad you like it."

Sheldon "We had to do the family thing in Texas but this lovely house is our real home this side of the pond."

Raj "So, how is old Cambridge these days?"

Sheldon "The University is 830 years old but there is always something new going on, it's a wonderful place to be involved in science. We have got to love the place as our home."

Bernadette "We have even got used to the English weather, this autumn hasn't been too bad. Still you can't beat the weather in Southern California."

Sheldon "How are things at Caltech?"

Leonard "Well you are talking to the head of the Physics department."

Bernadette "Oh poor Leonard, you have my sympathy!"

Leonard "Thank you Bernadette but I am enjoying the job. I took over from Professor Kripke 2 years ago. Experimental Physics is a young persons game, the extra salary is a big help as well."

Penny "Would you believe I am back acting again? I help to run the Caltech amateur dramatics society and maybe one day a month I work as an extra. I have been a face in the crowd in a couple of movies and tv shows this last year."

Bernadette "How are the children?"

Amy "Not so little any more, the twins are 20 years old now."

Howard "They are both studying at Caltech. Debbie is majoring in physics and Josh is majoring in biology."

Penny "Marie is 18 years old and in her first year at Caltech, she is doing biology as well. She wants to go to veterinary school after she graduates, she still loves cats."

Leonard "They might join us later on, you know how college students are. A question for you Professor Cooper, when are you flying home to England?"

Sheldon "We are on the British Airways Flight from LAX at 4.00pm on Monday..."

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Monday morning 10.00am. Professor Hofstadter addressed his Physics colleagues in the large seminar room.

"Good morning everyone, thanks for coming to this special seminar, sorry for the short notice. It is my great pleasure to introduce our very distinguished visitor, The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, Sheldon Cooper..."


	9. April 2040

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 9, happy (belated) birthday.**_

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Two months after his actual birthday, the Hawking lecture theatre at the University of Cambridge was full of the finest theoretical physicists in the world for a one day symposium in honour of the 60th birthday of Professor Sheldon Cooper.

The penultimate speaker started his speech "Good afternoon everyone, I am Professor Leonard Hofstadter from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. I feel like a fraud having to follow on from such distinguished scientists, especially as I am only an experimental physicist. I sure you are all here to listen to Professor Cooper. However, Sheldon and I go back a long way. I first met Sheldon 37 years ago as a postdoc at Caltech. He became my roommate and friend. We did collaborate on some work together so now I am going to talk about our collaboration on superfluids..."

20 minutes later

The head of University of Cambridge Physics department was acting as chair of the seminar. She announced the final speaker.

"Now here is the reason we are all here today. The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Sheldon Cooper!"

After the prolonged burst of applause Sheldon started his presentation

"Thank you for such a generous introduction. I would like to give special thanks to Professor Hofstadter, it is good to have my old friend in Cambridge at last. Not too bad a talk for an experimental physicist Leonard..."


	10. October 2040

**_The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 10, Sheldon's unexpected surprise._**

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After Sheldon and Bernadette's trip to California in November 2039 and Leonard's trip to Cambridge in April 2040 Sheldon and Bernadette were looking forward to returning to California for the Xmas holidays in 2040. Then in October 2040 came the news that Sheldon had won a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics! Suddenly Sheldon's world was turned upside down. He found that the prize he had wanted to win for 50 years came with a huge drawback. As a Nobel laureate his time wasn't his own, after the Nobel Prize was presented in December he just didn't have the time to visit his friends in California. Sheldon was showered with honours, he was given an honorary knighthood by King William.

Finally in 2041 he insisted on taking a sabbatical year at Caltech. Sheldon and Bernadette returned home in October 2041. Of course his Nobel Prize burden followed him across the pond, he was continually giving lectures all across the USA. Still he was able to spend time with his friends, he was there to see Marie Hofstadter graduate from Caltech. By now Debbie Wolowitz was working as a high school Physics teacher but her twin brother Josh decided to become (unlike his mother and Aunts and Uncles) a "real doctor", he was studying medicine. By the time the Rostenkowski-Coopers returned to Cambridge Marie had started studying veterinary medicine.

On their return to Cambridge Sheldon was keen to get back to work but with his Nobel Prize fame he didn't have that much time to do his theoretical physics. However, he did manage to keep working at a lower level, aged 62 he was still able to produce a couple of single-author papers a year. Life was good in Cambridge for the Rostenkowski-Coopers until, towards the end of 2045, Bernadette was taken seriously ill. She was in the hospital for nearly 4 months before she was released, she made a full recovery but decided to take early retirement from Cambridge. They were not able to spend the 2045-6 Xmas holidays in California but they did go back to Pasadena in the summer of 2046 to attend the wedding of Josh Wolowitz MD and Marie Hofstadter DVM.

Cambridge had no problem with a 66 year old Nobel Laureate Professor taking off all the time he wanted. The Rostenkowski-Coopers spent a month in Pasadena, Sheldon spent some time at Caltech. He gave a couple of guest lectures and spent time in discussion with the Caltech theoretical physicists. He also had an informal discussion with Professor Hofstadter, head of the Caltech Physics department.


	11. February 2047

_**The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 11, the return.**_

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The winter of 2046-7 was one of coldest winters in Cambridge for many years. 66 year old Sheldon and 62 year old Bernadette both found the cold weather a bit of a struggle. However, they didn't return to California for the Xmas holidays. There was a good reason for this. Sheldon celebrated his 67th birthday on February 26th 2047, the Lucasian Professor had to retire at that age. On his birthday Sheldon gave a farewell lecture in the Hawking lecture theatre which culminated in Bernadette unveiling a formal portrait of Sheldon on the wall of the lecture theatre. This joined the portraits of Newton, Dirac, Hawking and the rest of the Lucasian Professors of Mathematics. There was then a huge farewell party for Sheldon and Bernadette after which they left the University of Cambridge for the last time.

On March 1st 2047 Sheldon and Bernadette returned to California to start their retirement. Following on from his discussion at Caltech the previous summer with Professor Hofstadter Sheldon became Emeritus Professor of Physics at Caltech.


	12. July 2047

**_The continuing story of Professor Sheldon Cooper and his wife, Professor Bernadette Rostenkowski-Cooper. Part 12, epilogue._**

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The sign on the door of the consulting room at the veterinarian clinic said "Marie Hofstadter-Wolowitz DVM - crazy young cat lady." Sheldon smiled as he opened the door and entered.

Marie said "Uncle Sheldon" as she gave him a hug.

"Hello Marie, who would have thought that when we got those kittens the year you were born it would lead to this."

Marie said "Kitty Cats! So, what do we have here? What a lovely little kitty you have Uncle Sheldon. I understand you want a full examination of this cat."

"That's right. You know when we came back from England 4 months ago we stayed with your Uncle Raj and Aunt Samantha for a while until we found a home of our own. Aunt Bernadette and I moved in last weekend and we found this little kitty cat hanging around the house. He seems to have adopted us so I want to make sure he is healthy."

"At first glance he seems OK, it will take me a couple of hours to properly examine him. We will need to take a blood sample and send it off to the lab for analysis. It will be next week before we get the full results."

"What are you calling him?"

"Well as I was Lucasian Professor I am calling him Lucas, just like the Star Wars guy."

"I am sure we can look after this little guy at home if you need to do some travelling."

"Thank you Marie, although I think we want to stay in California for a while. How many cats do you have at home?"

"Only six, although we had seven for a week when Debbie was away."

"Only six! Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking were a handful and that was only two cats."

"Ah, but you are not a crazy cat man are you Uncle Sheldon? How are you enjoying retirement?"

"It's great fun, I still do a bit of Physics at home, the whiteboards are always in use. I go in as Emeritus Professor every couple of weeks for the odd seminar."

"My Dad is looking forward to joining you in the retired scientists club next year."

"That's right, 45 years on from our first meeting we will be Emeritus Professors together."

"OK Uncle Sheldon, I would love to carry on chatting but I need to do my job and examine Lucas here. You can wait in the reception or there is a coffee shop in the bookstore across the street."

"Thank you Dr. Hofstadter-Wolowitz, see you later."


End file.
